I started my business my junior year at Hofstra University.  As you can imagine, when you’re starting a business in college, I was short on capital.  I tried to do everything myself, and at 22 years of age, I thought I could do it. When I started out, I had about a million ideas about marketing my business, but not a lot of money to do things. I had to face the truth I didn’t have the manpower or the budget for all my ideas.  So, I turned to technology to help me get up and running. I built my website, set up a customer and lead tracking database, and a few years later, was one of the first people I knew using email marketing to drip my message to past and present clients.

What’s changed? Today my company still has a website, it’s what we do, I still have a CRM tool, and I still use email marketing. The lesson here is finding what works for you and sticking with it.

Pitfalls
The two biggest pitfalls small businesses make when starting out are:

1.        Staying focused on one idea

2.        Sticking with the plan

When small business owners get busy, we forget about marketing our own businesses. Friends and other business owners have asked me how I have the time to keep up my marketing. I simply reply – I have had to make the time. The trick is to stay focused. Don’t try and do it all. I still have a million ideas for marketing my business, but I have realized I can’t do them all.

Achieving Success

1.        Write down your ideas. Seeing things on paper makes it easier for you to take the next step.

2.        Do a little research. Before you jump in, be sure to do a little research on the ROI you can expect from your idea.

3.        Pick one. Start with one idea and don’t try to do two or three things at one time.

4.        Be committed. Whatever the idea is, you need be sure you can stay with it for at least four to six months. It is difficult to measure success in just a few weeks.

5.        Set goals. Put measurable goals in place before starting.

6.         Create a launch date. Choose a date on the calendar for when you’re going to get started.

These six steps will help you stay focused and save your budget. Today when I work with clients to develop their web marketing strategies, I follow these steps. It’s wonderful to be creative and have a multitude of ideas, but eventually you have to pick one and follow through to find out if the idea is right for your business.